MOTORING

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4805, 3 July 1939, Page 3

MOTORING

AUXILIARY BIKES. TANDEMS IN FRANCE. NO LICENSE REQUIRED. The latest type of vehicle seen on the roads of France is a motorised "bicycle built for two." For a long time two-seater bicycles, or tandems, have enjoyed considerable popularity in France as a means of locomotion, whether for utilitarian purposes, pleasure, longdistance travelling, or sport. The ordinary bicycle in France is used daily by the vast majority who cannot afford a motor car. A common sight on Sunday is that of couples, or even whole families, leaving Paris for a jaunt in the country, assiduously pedalling. Among them may occasionally be seen strange vehicles resembling motor vehicles, but whose power plant consists in one or two pairs of legs. More common than these hybrid creations, called "velocars," are the tandems, usually built for two persons. There are models for three and even four in existence, but these are seldom seen outside of shop windows . Then, also, a family model can be obtained, in which a small saddle and foot rests have been installed for junior between papa's seat in front and mama's in the rear.

For some time one-seater bicycles equipped with tiny engines, "velomoteurs" as they are called, have enjoyed great vogue in France. Now bicycle manufacturers have gone a step further and designed tandems with motors. Of course, the engine is only auxiliary and does not deprive the operator of all his fun and exercise.

The driver need have neither license nor driver's card such as are required for a motor car. The petrol consumption is about a quart to 50 miles.

ROAD SAFETY MAJOR PROBLEMS.

Road safety in Australia is becoming a problem of major importance as the density of motor traffic increases, says an Australian journal. It will become more acute if some basic principle is not speedily adopted not only in one State, but as a national measure towards simplyfying the code of the road and reducing the tragic accidents associated with automotive traffic. Most of these happenings could be avoided if there were one governing traffic law which everyone must obey. There is one outstanding rule—that of right of priority at uncontrolled intersections and crossings—which if made law and enforced with* the utmost rigour, would undoubtedly go far towards clarifying the minds of all drivers of automobiles and horse-drawn vehicles and riders of bicycles. If it were made obligatory that the vehicle from the right has the right of way under every and all circumstances, then, in the event of collisions, the responsibility would definitely rest on the shoulders of the driver who failed to abide by that cast-iron rule. The simplicity of such a law, if strictly enforced, would soon discourage its disobedience, lessen the toll of the road, and remove the uncertainty now so often associated with driving across uncontrolled intersections. It would also relieve the mental strain which, at present, exists when driving a motor vehicle, as to whether drivers of vehicles approaching from „the left will abide by the system of giving priority to traffic emerging from the right.

Under such a law, every driver would know that he or she was safeguarded at intersections from traffic emerging from the left. A better understanding amongst drivers would follow, and driving would be greatly simplified. In the event of a mishap at an intersection it would be an easy matter to ascertain who was responsible. That is what is wanted in Australia—a simple, fundamental law that everyone can understand and by which every driver and every cyclist must abide or pay the penalty, writes H. B. James, a motorist with 40 years' driving experience, in the Dunlop Bulletin. Under present-day conditions, caution, courtesy, tolerance and experience are essentials to road safety, but he contends these attributes can be more easily engendered in road users if there is first established one basic traffic law, a rock which would discourage aggressive, pushful drivers and provide a safeguard to the careful and considerate road user.